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That's an awesome eyepiece, Dave. I have a couple of them. There were at least three versions of the 30mm:
1) All-silver, orange engraved lettering, Circle-V on the chrome barrel.
2) All-silver, orange engraved lettering, Japan silkscreened in white on the silver body.
3) All-silver, orange engraved lettering, Taiwan silkscreened in white on the silver body.

Which version do you have?

Mine are the Taiwan ROC versions. The views are magical in our club's Celestron 16.

Cheers!
Blake

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I am trying to obtain a 2X barlow that is labeled Multi Coated. Also a 22mm but not sure if it is Fully or Multi Coated.

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Always enjoy seeing your Silvertops collections Blake. I really like the Silvertops but gave up trying to collect them. I guess I'm just too impatient, they come up so infrequently and when they do, people usually grab them. Congrats on the additions and I wish you good luck on finding that 10mm and 17mm!

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That's an awesome eyepiece, Dave. I have a couple of them. There were at least three versions of the 30mm:
1) All-silver, orange engraved lettering, Circle-V on the chrome barrel.
2) All-silver, orange engraved lettering, Japan silkscreened in white on the silver body.
3) All-silver, orange engraved lettering, Taiwan silkscreened in white on the silver body.

Which version do you have?

Mine are the Taiwan ROC versions. The views are magical in our club's Celestron 16.

Cheers!
Blake

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Hi Blake,

I have the Taiwan ROC version. I picked it up on Ebay last year and it looked as if it had never been used.

Dave

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Yep, that was the last in the series. If memory (and my research) is correct, Celestron introduced the 30mm Silvertop in 1987. The run was fairly short lived. By 1991, the introduction of the Ultima line overshadowed the Silvertops (which did not appear in the 1991 Accessories Catalog). I think that the Black-top Silvertops may have been offered at this time and ran up through 1995 when the "Halloween Plossls" were introduced.

Cheers!
Blake

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Are you sure the 1st generation was marked Fully Coated? I see some posts now and then claiming the Multi Coated are the 1st generation.

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Hi Blake,

You are very welcome to ''Christmas past'' glad to see you have added a couple more to this very exclusive early run , I think if others exist in the line you may have to look closer to the production source !

Good Hunting, and a Happy New Year,

Steve

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Are you sure the 1st generation was marked Fully Coated? I see some posts now and then claiming the Multi Coated are the 1st generation.

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Great question!

The answer is "absolutely sure!" Here's why... If you look at earlier eyepieces, say 1950's and 1960's, these are all marked "Fully Coated". There are folks more expert than I at the meaning of this, but as I understand it, it means that only the outer lens surfaces on end of the eyepiece (field lens and eye lens) were coated. Multi-coating means that all air-to-glass surfaces of all elements are coated. If my understanding is correct, multi-coating came into its own in the early 1980's. So it stands to reason that the first run Silvertops were actually "Fully Coated" with the second run and subsequent third run "Multi-Coated". All modern eyepieces are now "Multi-Coated" and the marking has faded into obscurity.

I suspect that those that say that the first run Silvertops are "Multi-Coated" are not aware that the the "Fully Coated" versions exist.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!
Blake

PS For observing, "Multi-Coated" eyepieces should outperform their "Fully Coated" counter parts.

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Blake,

This is not my understanding of the marketing terms. Perhaps they have changed from the far past to today. I believe today the meaning is:

0. Coated - Not sure, perhaps just the exterior eye and field lens.

1. Fully Coated - all air-glass surfaces MgF2 coated

2. Multicoated - As #1, except the top of the eye lens is multicoated.

3. Full Multicoated - all air-glass surfaces multicoated

I have discussed this with the Circle-T folks some years back, and #2 and #3 is what they mean for those terms.

Also, the Celestron site defines them as follows: Coated optics means that at least one of the major optical elements has a coating on at least one surface. Fully-coated means that all lenses and glass surfaces have a coating layer. Multicoated means that at least one of the major optical elements in a fully-coated binocular has multiple coatings of antireflective compounds on at least one surface. Fully-multicoated means all glass surfaces have multiple coatings and it is the best kind, resulting in light transmission of 90-95 percent, bright, sharp and contrasty images.

Link.

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Are you sure the 1st generation was marked Fully Coated? I see some posts now and then claiming the Multi Coated are the 1st generation.

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Great question!

The answer is "absolutely sure!" Here's why... If you look at earlier eyepieces, say 1950's and 1960's, these are all marked "Fully Coated". There are folks more expert than I at the meaning of this, but as I understand it, it means that only the outer lens surfaces on end of the eyepiece (field lens and eye lens) were coated. Multi-coating means that all air-to-glass surfaces of all elements are coated. If my understanding is correct, multi-coating came into its own in the early 1980's. So it stands to reason that the first run Silvertops were actually "Fully Coated" with the second run and subsequent third run "Multi-Coated". All modern eyepieces are now "Multi-Coated" and the marking has faded into obscurity.

I suspect that those that say that the first run Silvertops are "Multi-Coated" are not aware that the the "Fully Coated" versions exist.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!
Blake

PS For observing, "Multi-Coated" eyepieces should outperform their "Fully Coated" counter parts.

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Blake,

This is not my understanding of the marketing terms. Perhaps they have changed from the far past to today. I believe today the meaning is:

0. Coated - Not sure, perhaps just the exterior eye and field lens.

1. Fully Coated - all air-glass surfaces MgF2 coated

2. Multicoated - As #1, except the top of the eye lens is multicoated.

3. Full Multicoated - all air-glass surfaces multicoated

I have discussed this with the Circle-T folks some years back, and #2 and #3 is what they mean for those terms.

Also, the Celestron site defines them as follows: Coated optics means that at least one of the major optical elements has a coating on at least one surface. Fully-coated means that all lenses and glass surfaces have a coating layer. Multicoated means that at least one of the major optical elements in a fully-coated binocular has multiple coatings of antireflective compounds on at least one surface. Fully-multicoated means all glass surfaces have multiple coatings and it is the best kind, resulting in light transmission of 90-95 percent, bright, sharp and contrasty images.

Link.

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Hi Bill,

Thanks for the clarification.

As I indicated in my post I was not sure about the specific definition of each term (due to all of the marketing hype). So I really appreciate your knowledge on this point.

From your perspective, is the Celestron Silvertop progression from "Fully Coated" to "Multi Coated" correct?

Many thanks!

Blake

Edited by Blake Andrews (01/03/13 11:26 AM)

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From your perspective, is the Celestron Silvertop progression from "Fully Coated" to "Multi Coated" correct?

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From your perspective, is the Celestron Silvertop progression from "Fully Coated" to "Multi Coated" correct?

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Yes. Don't think I've ever seen one saying fully multicoated. I don't think it was until the mid 80's that fully multicoated became the rage. Not sure who first started doing this.

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You've just gotta love marketing one-ups-man-ship. I'm not sure I can recall a Celestron eyepiece that carried the moniker of "Fully Multi-Coated". Can you?

Thanks!
Blake

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The entire Ultima line was advertised as Full multi-coating.

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Thanks, Steve.

I just checked my Celestron Ultima and Axiom eyepieces and they are indeed marked "Fully Multi-Coated". I never noticed that before! Thanks for pointing it out. I should probably spend more time looking at them in the daytime!!!


Cheers!
Blake

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I thought Jan at University Optics was the 1st in the industry to offer "multi-coated or fully multicoated eyepieces". I somewhat recall that in one of his early catalogs where the Konigs had a "mushroom top". My Celestron 26mm "silvertop" Plossl reads Multi Coated.

Jim

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Then after Full Multicoated we had Fully Broadband Multicoated which means nothing really since would hope the eyepiece coatings transmit across the visible spectrum (i.e., broadband)

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Yeah, and my Cemex Eyepieces are optimized for daytime solar viewing. Hmmm, is the sun a star? Don'tcha just love marketing hype?


Cheers!

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There's also a 15mm but the one I had was marked as multi coated.

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I am confused. I just remembered that in the past when I was looking at pictures of the 50mm silvertop eyepieces they all seem to have the black rim on top.

like in: http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=764420

Is there a 50mm that is all Silver on top?
What version is this then?

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Okay I picked up
- 22mm Multi Coated
- 36mm Multi Coated
- 45mm Multi Coated
- 2X Barlow Multi Coated

Sorry the 22mm was not Fully Coated.

So now I plan to sell
- 36mm Fully Coated
- 2X Barlow Fully Coated
since I have Multi Coated versions of these.

Not sure what price to ask. The 36mm doesn't come up often at all. And to me being Fully Coated isn't that much of a difference or rarity to ask a higher price right?

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Hi Blake,

Curious is the 50mm available without the black rim?

What focal lengths are available for the each generation?

Dave

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Hi Dave,

I've never seen an all satin / engraved orange lettered 50mm 2" silvertop plossl. It appears that Celestron retained the all-black 2" format when the silvertops were first introduced. The makeover didn't happen until the twilight of silvertops during the blacktop era.

Generation 1 (all silver with engraved orange lettering "Fully Coated"):
45mm, 36mm, 26mm, 17mm, 10mm and Deluxe 2x Barlow.

Generation 2 (all silver with engraved orange lettering "Multi-Coated"):
45mm, 36mm, 26mm, 17mm, 10mm, and Deluxe 2x Barlow, initially;
22mm, 15mm, and 7.5mm were released later;
30mm was released last.

Generation 3 (silver with black tops and silk screened red lettering):
36mm, 26mm, 17mm, 10mm, 7.5mm and Deluxe 2x Barlow;
50mm 2" was also released during this timeframe.

I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone that has an example that is not listed above. For example, how 'bout an all silver 50mm 2" Silvertop? Or, maybe a 45mm black-top silvertop? Any takers?



Cheers!
Blake

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I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone that has an example that is not listed above. For example, how 'bout an all silver 50mm 2" Silvertop? Or, maybe a 45mm black-top silvertop? Any takers?

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Hi Blake,

You are very welcome to ''Christmas past'' glad to see you have added a couple more to this very exclusive early run , I think if others exist in the line you may have to look closer to the production source !

Good Hunting, and a Happy New Year,

Steve

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Hi Steve,

Happy New Year. I hope your skies have been favorable this season.

Yep, this project is a exercise in supreme multi-year patience and I could not be successful without the help of folks like you!

Bagging the 17mm and 10mm will be challenging because its so easy to NOT notice the markings. I've missed a couple of opportunities because of that.


Good luck on the sale of your Celestron Erfles at auction on the other site.

Cheers!
Blake

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Shortly after recording the snippet above I can across a few other posts that stated there was a 6.3mm and a 20mm silvertop (not sure of what generation for either of them). If they didn't come from a post it might have been from a classifieds ad at one of the two main sites.

I saved the above because of my interest to collect a set.

Do you know anything about this 6.3 or 20mm?

Dave

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Hehe, well what would life be like if we didn't have myths that just don't die?

I will scratch the 6.3 and 20mm from my list.

Thanks for clearing that up.

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It means that we couldn't have hokey-pokey funerals!!!

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When I owned a C8, I owned several of these eyepieces. They performed very well with my telescope, and came at a very reasonable price.

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